Is A.I. The AntiChrist?
- Eddie Canyon
- Jul 21
- 15 min read
Updated: Jul 21
In my last blog {God & Technology}, I gave a brief introduction to a question I find to be fascinating, compelling, and very complex.
While we in no way definitively answered this question, I'd posit that we took a decent first step.
My hope was to
share what lead me to this question
share a bit of my worldview and
give you a little bit of insight as to how I hope to answer this question within the context of what I believe to be a very insightful source of truth, the Bible. And
to practice writing.
By the way, NONE of this is A.I. generated :)
FYI, I'll share more later on my fascination with A.I. in general & with the many attempts by Christians to understand it in light of a Theological worldview. Many of these concepts are extremely practical and relevant, but I'd like to offer a perspective I don't find very often in the wild.
When we ask massive questions like *is A.I. the Antichrist?*, it would probably be helpful to understand what a "christ" is in order to understand it's antithesis.
Defintion
Anoint (Greek) + Messiah (Hebrew)
But what do these mean?
Anoint - rub with oil, set apart (for a particular, usually religious, purpose)
Messiah - derived from masah, annoint
A couple of Biblical examples of anointing:
Leviticus 16:32 - The Day of Atonement
And the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the holy linen garments.
Exodus 29:29 - Consecration of the Priests
“The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them.
FYI - Consecrate (v) - make or declare (something, typically a church) sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.
1 Kings 19:15-16 - The LORD Speaks to Elijah
The LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king over Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
Isaiah 61 - The Day of The LORD's Favor (as read by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19)
1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me,
because the LORD has anointed Me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and freedom to the prisoners,a
2to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favorb
and the day of our God’s vengeance,
to comfort all who mourn,
3to console the mourners in Zion—
to give them a crown of beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
4They will rebuild the ancient ruins;
they will restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities,
the desolations of many generations.
5Strangers will stand and feed your flocks,
and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.
6But you will be called the priests of the LORD;
they will speak of you as ministers of our God;
you will feed on the wealth of nations,
and you will boast in their riches.
7Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion,
and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share;
and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,
and everlasting joy will be theirs.
8For I, the LORD, love justice;
I hate robbery and iniquity;
in My faithfulness I will give them their recompense
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
9Their descendants will be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the LORD has blessed.
10I will rejoice greatly in the LORD,
my soul will exult in my God;
for He has clothed me with garments of salvation
and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress,
as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11For as the earth brings forth its growth,
and as a garden enables seed to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
As we can see, anointing often meant a special religious/spiritual designation of a priest or a king.
So what does it mean that Jesus is referred to as "the anointed one"?
Well, let's give some backstory, as this will potentially shed some light on our questions {"*how does God feel about technology?" "Is A.I. the AntiChrist?"*}
We see people being set apart for special occasions for both priests and kings:
Priest (Levites in Numbers 8:5-26)
5Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6“Take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. 7This is what you must do to cleanse them: Sprinkle them with the water of purification. Have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves.
8Then have them take a young bull with its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you are to take a second young bull for a sin offering. 9Bring the Levites before the Tent of Meeting and assemble the whole congregation of Israel. 10You are to present the Levites before the LORD and have the Israelites lay their hands upon them. 11Aaron is to present the Levites before the LORD as a wave offering from the sons of Israel, so that they may perform the service of the LORD. 12And the Levites are to lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and offer to the LORD one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, to make atonement for the Levites.
13You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons and then present them before the LORD as a wave offering. 14In this way you shall separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites, and the Levites will belong to Me. 15After you have cleansed them and presented them as a wave offering, they may come to serve at the Tent of Meeting.
16For the Levites have been wholly given to Me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for Myself in place of all who come first from the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel. 17For every firstborn male in Israel is Mine, both man and beast. I set them apart for Myself on the day I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. 18But I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel. 19And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the Israelites, to perform the service for the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting and to make atonement on their behalf, so that no plague will come against the Israelites when they approach the sanctuary.”
20So Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel did with the Levites everything that the LORD had commanded Moses they should do. 21The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the LORD. Aaron also made atonement for them to cleanse them. 22After that, the Levites came to perform their service at the Tent of Meeting in the presence of Aaron and his sons. Thus they did with the Levites just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Retirement for Levites
23And the LORD said to Moses, 24“This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years of age or older shall enter to perform the service in the work at the Tent of Meeting. 25But at the age of fifty, they must retire from performing the work and no longer serve.
26After that, they may assist their brothers in fulfilling their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves are not to do the work. This is how you are to assign responsibilities to the Levites.”
King (David in 1 Sam 16)
1The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” 5And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 7But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 8Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest,a but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
We also see an interesting combination of both Priest & King:
Priest King (Melchizedek)
In Genesis 14:18 we encounter a very mysterious Priest-King who blesses Abraham (while he's still called Abram)
In the New Testament, we learn more about what Melchizedek symbolizes & how Jesus fulfills this (for a full run-down, see the entire chapters of Hebrews 7-8)
Hebrews 7:1-2
Hebrews 8:1-6
1The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. 3And since every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, it was necessary for this One also to have something to offer.
4Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”a
6Now, however, Jesus has received a much more excellent ministry, just as the covenant He mediates is better and is founded on better promises.
As these examples show, the Biblical function of anointing is to essentially set apart someone for a special role according to God's plan in humanity. As the baptism of Jesus reveals, Jesus himself was anointed by God to go about his earthly ministry
Matt 3:13-17
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him,c and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son,d with whom I am well pleased.”
--
Now that we have an idea of what "Christ" means Biblically (it means "anointed"), let's now turn our attention to what folks might have been expecting the awaited Anointed Hero that we discussed in the previous installment.
Joshua & The Conquest
Turns out Jesus isn't the first Jesus of the Bible, at least not from a naming perspective. There's some interesting linguistic & translation-related history we could share here, but suffice to say that Joshua and Jesus both come from a similar wording & meaning, namely "YHWH is Salvation", or "YHWH is my Salvation"
In the Old Testament, Joshua was Moses' assistant and the leader of the Israelites during the Conquest of Canaan.
I won't go into too many details here - there's a ton of very hard questions to ask about the Conquest, especially from a post-Jesus worldview. Questions such as, "Wait don't the 10 commandments, which God just gave these people, say not to murder??" These are good questions and can be handled elsewhere. But suffice to say, Joshua's goal was to lead Israel as they cleansed the Promised Land of the Canaanites & took their land for their own possession, via war & pillaging.
Maybe later we can bring this topic up in light of modern geo-political events, but that's outside of our scope for now.
The main thing we want to focus on here is that the people of Israel right before Jesus Christ's time had in their worldview at least a couple of examples of might men who had waged some sort of war on the enemies of God & his people. Namely, Joshua of the Old Testament, and in some senses the ideal Old Testament king David, who was know for his many battle adventures.
During Jesus' time on earth, people were awaiting the promises Messiah who would come, be a king in the line of David, and save his people. As Israel was under Roman authority at the time (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaea_(Roman_province) for historical details), it makes sense that many folks would expect an anointed king to come free them from Rome & set them back up into the strong nation of God they had once been.
Thus we come back to a question we asked last episode: *Is this our Hero*? As people in Jesus' time anticipated The Messiah, it would seem that they often pictured him as a warrior king.
See these examples for traces of these messiah warrior expectations:
Matt 16:21-23
21From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!e This shall never happen to you.” 23But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrancef to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Matt 20:20-28
20Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. 21And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” 22Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” 23He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” 24And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. 25But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,c 27and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,d 28even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Now from what I can tell, it seems that much-of-if-not-all of Jesus' *actual* earthly appearance seems to have baffled almost everyone who came into contact with him. There are some very interesting moments where people seem to just "get it" that Jesus is the Chosen One of God, but even then there are a number of times where people seem unsure or downright confused (or, as it would be, the truth was obfuscated from them for reasons unknown):
Luke 7:18-20
8The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, 19calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 20And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’”
Mark 3:22
22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
Luke 9:43b-45
But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesusd said to his disciples, 44“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
Luke 24:15-16; 25-26
15While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
25And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
Back to the question - *Is This our Hero?*
How would we know?
Well, let's consider a couple of things about Jesus, starting from the outside:
Jesus was a homeless man (Matt 8:20)
20And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus was the suffering servant form Isaiah 53; lowly, humble, without majesty or beauty
1Who has believed what he has heard from us?a
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejectedb by men,
a man of sorrowsc and acquainted withd grief;e
and as one from whom men hide their facesf
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4Surely he has borne our griefsand carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken,smitten by God, and afflicted.5But he was pierced for our transgressions;he was crushed for our iniquities;upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,and with his wounds we are healed.6All we like sheep have gone astray;we have turned—every one—to his own way;and the Lord has laid on himthe iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,yet he opened not his mouth;like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,so he opened not his mouth.8By oppression and judgment he was taken away;and as for his generation, who consideredthat he was cut off out of the land of the living,stricken for the transgression of my people?9And they made his grave with the wickedand with a rich man in his death,although he had done no violence,and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;he has put him to grief;gwhen his soul makesh an offering for guilt,he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.11Out of the anguish of his soul he shall seei and be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,make many to be accounted righteous,and he shall bear their iniquities.12Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,jand he shall divide the spoil with the strong,kbecause he poured out his soul to deathand was numbered with the transgressors;yet he bore the sin of many,and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Many people misunderstood his teachings & parables (Matt 13:11)
11And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Are these the qualities of a King? Do they contain the hints of marvel, wonder, adoration, majesty, power, authority, or beauty?
Did Jesus upend the Roman Empire through Revolution or Conquest?
Did Jesus make the Nation of Israel Great Again?
Well, if he didn't do exactly what people were expecting him to do, what did he do exactly? Let's find out on the next episode. In the meantime, consider Jesus' response to John The Baptist's Disciples when they asked Jesus if he was the Christ:
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